Power outage history
Strafford County New Hampshire
5.1hours
without power for the average customer in a typical year, 2018–2025
8th most of 10 in New Hampshire 22% below the national median
Every day since 2015
Eleven years, one night at a time
Each cell is a day. The brighter it is, the larger the share of Strafford's customers who were without power at that day's worst moment.
Year by year
Hours in the dark, per customer
2024 was the worst well-recorded year, at 14 hours for the average customer. Hatched years have a thin record and are left out of the averages.
Strafford, hours without power per customer
The record
The biggest outages since 2015
Ranked by customer-hours lost: customers out multiplied by how long they stayed out. Times are local.
| Began | Storm | Peak out | Share | Lasted | 90% restored | Customer-hours |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 29, 2017 | Windstorm | 29,633 | 33% | 3.8 d | 2.9 d | 901k |
| Apr 4, 2024 | Winter storm | 24,097 | 27% | 2.8 d | 2.0 d | 765k |
| Jan 23, 2023 | Winter storm | 20,731 | 23% | 2.4 d | 20 h | 564k |
| Dec 23, 2022 | Flooding | 17,206 | 19% | 2.4 d | 29 h | 356k |
| Mar 23, 2024 | Winter storm | 17,394 | 19% | 40 h | 18 h | 326k |
| Aug 4, 2020 | Hurricane Isaias | 11,279 | 13% | 31 h | 27 h | 155k |
| Dec 5, 2020 | Winter storm | 5,647 | 6% | 47 h | 29 h | 122k |
| Mar 1, 2021 | No storm report | 4,375 | 5% | 33 h | – | 71k |
| Oct 17, 2019 | No storm report | 7,820 | 9% | 17 h | 15 h | 69k |
| Mar 14, 2023 | Winter storm | 5,113 | 6% | 24 h | 19 h | 64k |
| Feb 7, 2020 | No storm report | 4,426 | 5% | 22 h | – | 42k |
| Dec 18, 2023 | No storm report | 5,392 | 6% | 15 h | 24 h | 40k |
| Mar 7, 2018 | Winter storm | 4,221 | 5% | 17 h | – | 34k |
| Mar 29, 2021 | No storm report | 4,712 | 5% | 11 h | 13 h | 29k |
| May 4, 2018 | Thunderstorms | 4,967 | 6% | 13 h | 15 h | 26k |
| Mar 7, 2025 | No storm report | 4,499 | 5% | 14 h | 12 h | 25k |
| Jun 18, 2018 | No storm report | 11,409 | 13% | 4.0 h | 4.0 h | 24k |
| Aug 15, 2015 | No storm report | 14,806 | 17% | 2.5 h | 2.0 h | 24k |
| Jul 20, 2017 | Thunderstorms | 4,155 | 5% | 9.0 h | – | 22k |
| Sep 11, 2016 | Thunderstorms | 6,623 | 7% | 7.5 h | 7.2 h | 21k |
| Mar 17, 2015 | No storm report | 5,349 | 6% | 5.0 h | 4.0 h | 17k |
| Nov 3, 2018 | No storm report | 5,681 | 6% | 5.8 h | 4.8 h | 16k |
| Oct 27, 2021 | Tropical Storm Wanda | 2,055 | 2% | 9.0 h | – | 15k |
| Jun 30, 2021 | Thunderstorms | 7,769 | 9% | 6.2 h | 6.2 h | 15k |
| Feb 16, 2021 | No storm report | 5,792 | 6% | 7.5 h | 3.8 h | 15k |
| Dec 17, 2022 | No storm report | 2,766 | 3% | 6.8 h | – | 14k |
| Mar 24, 2020 | Winter storm | 5,840 | 7% | 6.2 h | 3.2 h | 13k |
| May 17, 2022 | No storm report | 6,812 | 8% | 2.5 h | 30 min | 11k |
| Aug 5, 2024 | Thunderstorms | 2,151 | 2% | 5.0 h | – | 11k |
| Feb 5, 2016 | Winter storm | 4,316 | 5% | 8.2 h | – | 9.3k |
After the peak
How fast the lights come back
Each line is one major outage, from its peak. The amber line is the typical path.
When it happens
The outage clock
Customer-hours out by month (rings, January innermost) and local hour, 2018–2025.
What was happening
Weather behind the outages
Each outage is matched to NOAA storm reports for Strafford from twelve hours before it began to its peak. Matching shows coincidence, not proof of cause.
- Winter storm 62%
- No storm on record 19%
- Flooding 12%
- Tropical storm 5.7%
- Thunderstorms 2.1%
Who keeps the lights on
Utilities serving Strafford
As each utility reports to the Energy Information Administration for its whole New Hampshire territory, not this county alone. Outage minutes include major storm days.
| Utility | Type | Outage min / yr | Excl. major storms | Outages / yr | Residential ¢/kWh | Customers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Public Service Co of NH | Investor Owned | 161 | 83 | 1.09 | 24.2 | 464k |
| New Hampshire Elec Coop Inc | Cooperative | 874 | 526 | 4.05 | 24.7 | 75k |
EIA Form 861, latest year each utility reported. Outage minutes are SAIDI, the yearly minutes the average customer goes without power; outages a year are SAIFI.
Next door
Neighbouring counties
- York, ME 30 h
- Carroll 23 h
- Belknap 14 h
- Rockingham 6.2 h
- Strafford (this county) 5.1 h
- Merrimack 5.0 h
About these numbers
Notes
Outages come from the EAGLE-I record of utility outage maps collected every 15 minutes by Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Hours without power are customer-hours divided by the county's 89,738 electricity customers. Averages use well-covered years from 2018. Outages shorter than 15 minutes, and utilities that publish no outage map, are not in the record, so these figures understate the total. How every number is made →